A Good Mistake
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Following Edolas, Lisanna and Natsu have a bit of catching up to do. And yet, it still feels like they haven't missed a beat. - One-shot.


"It was like living in a dream," Lisanna whispered softly. "Not a good dream or a bad dream, but a dream you thought you wouldn't be able to have anymore, that you wouldn't see again, but then you open your eyes and...and… And there's everyone, every single person you thought you would never see again, just right there in front of you, smiling at you, happy to see you. It was the best….worst...dream I'd ever had."

Natsu only sat there thought, silently, watching. Listening. It wasn't odd for him to be doing the former, but to also be accomplishing the latter simultaneously was reserved for only the most important of occasions. Or, honestly, this occasion only as even in the most dire of times, listening and keeping his yap shut weren't too simple for him. For Lisanna though? After all these years, for Lisanna?

He'd do anything. Just to keep these moment going.

"I guess I should have been happy," Lisanna sighed, just a bit as she looked off, away from him for the first time. "That I wasn't turned into, like, some sort of toad or something. You know? Like if the other world was all toads? Could you imagine?"

She was joking, of course, and she grinned from the thought, but when Natsu was so serious it was hard for him to crack one of those. Everything had been so jovial, the past few days, as they celebrated not only the return of Lisanna, but also then return of them all, honestly. He was pretty beat up, Natsu was, from both the only just recently ended adventure in Edolas as well as the fights and drinking that had gone on up at the hall since they'd gotten back.

Now, finally, Natsu and Lisanna found themselves alone, without even her siblings who, understandably, were hanging off her every breath. Happy was hard to lose as well, but this was equally as expected.

Natsu himself felt as if he was clinging to her. Who could help it? Who else would ever be given an opportunity such as this? To be reunited…to find one another again…

They were at the Strauss house where Lisanna was both part happy to find her tiny room mostly untouched as she was dismayed to realize her siblings were still that lost in their grief. Still, the familiarity and ability to, almost, just pick right back up was welcome. Though this was her home, this was her world, she was accustomed to the ways of Edolas after her time there and, well, everything felt as if it were new. No longer second nature.

Even just the feeling of her magic once more coursing through her body, constantly, was...exhilarating.

They sat on the floor, like they had since they were kids and Mira first was able to save up enough jewels for the rundown little house that, honestly, was much better than the one they'd had back in their village. If only because it had been bought by her big sis through sheer hard work, determination and, of course, love.

Even if she wasn't the best at showing it back then.

"But anyways," she sighed when it was clear Natsu was no nonsense (at least for the moment) before carrying on, "I just… I always knew I was out of place there. At first I thought… Mira believes, you know, in afterlife and all that? But I don't. Do you? When I woke up there though… It felt like I'd been gifted a new chance, a way to restart. But not Heaven or Hell or anything in between. I know now, obviously, that it was just a completely other world from our own, but at the time… I know none of this is making sense-"

"No," Natsu finally spoke and voice wasn't in the least bit rough. It was almost soft, even, in a way he usually wasn't too great at capturing. "You're fine, Lisanna. Go on."

She smiled at him then and Natsu felt something, deep in his chest he felt...a strong urge to just… It hurt. Why did it hurt so much when it should feel so good? She was home. She was back. With him. Finally. He'd found her and saved her (well, okay, fine, his actions had indirectly done so), but yet..

Clinching his teeth hard, he forced himself back into silence.

"I realized eventually, of course, what was going on, at least a little bit of it, and I had to adjust. Or I tried to. To be more like the Lisanna… The one that… But I still…" She paused for a moment before remarking, "It's hard, Natsu, to resolve to yourself that you'll never go home. That you're not even sure if there is a home. Before you and Happy came into the guildhall that day, I had started to doubt myself, even. I'd fallen, you know. Their Lisanna, she fell too, to her death, and I thought maybe… Could I have hit my head? On the way down? Were you all just memories? That happens, you know, they say. That when you go into a coma or whatever, you imagine these worlds, these vivid worlds, and maybe this was the imagined one and Edolas was my home and..."

She was tearing up then and Natsu shifted on the floor so that he was no longer just across from her, but rather beside her, tossing an arm over her shoulder, as if in comfort. He didn't think he was too good at that, comforting, but he'd try.

For Lisanna, he'd try anything.

Sniffling, she wiped at her eyes and huffed some. "I feel like a stupid little kid sometimes. Do you? Probably not. You've gotten so strong, Natsu, I can tell. The others have told me. And what have gotten? Even more weak. Without being able to access my magic so much over there, I feel like I've just withered away compared to you and Elf."

"Don't say that, Lisanna." Finally, he smiled some as he said, "I couldn't do it, you know. Go through all that you went through. To even find the strength to survive, knowing that you would never see your brother or your sister again or Happy or-"

"Or you." When she turned her head towards him, her eyes weren't so watery anymore. "Natsu. I… It really sucks. All of it, of course, knowing what Mira and Elf went through here...what the other Mira and Elf are going through now. Leaving Happy. Leaving everyone. Now twice. But all the things we were gonna do together, me and you, we lost so much time-"

"Two years ain't that long, Lisanna," he insisted to her and, as his arm fell from her shoulders, he only bumped his against hers. "We'll have so many more now. And if you don't feel like you're strong, that's okay; I'll be strong for both of us. Out on jobs. You should see Hap, too. He's a big help these days. And we go out with Erza and Gray and Lucy a lot now, but you can come too or just the three of us, you, me, and Happy-"

"I think Elf has me covered on jobs." She let out one last sniffle before wiping her eyes for the last time. "He said that I'm not to go out on any jobs without him. It's an order."

"Well, I'm orderin' ya to do whatever you want." And Natsu meant that. "This is your second chance. Not his."

"Mmmmm," she hummed in agreement. Then, softly, she added, "I tried so hard, Natsu, to be content there. With what I had. I had Elf and Mira and...and…you, but it just wasn't the same. I almost feel like, maybe, if I close my eyes, just for too long, that this will have been the dream. Not a good one or a bad one, but just a dream and I'll have to leave, just like before. But where would I go? If these are both just dreams? Where would I go from here?"

"You're not going anywhere." His hands returned to his lap then, Natsu's did, and he gripped at the air tightly, clinching his fists so hard that his nails cut into his flesh. "Lisanna. I won't let you. Not again. Not ever again. Edolas was fine, I guess, for the people who were from there, but I like our world much better. Don't you?"

She nodded softly before, with a yawn, taking to leaning up against him. Natsu froze, just from the feeling, the warmth, the comfort. He'd never thought that he'd ever feel it again, not that way. Lisanna felt it too, of course, but she enjoyed more the distinct scent that his scarf radiated, as foul as it was given the typical procrastination for laundry day it's wearer had, and couldn't believe that after all these years, it was just the same.

"Such a stupid mistake."

"What?" Natsu, who'd been drifting into thoughts of all the evils in the world he would now have to protect Lisanna from, glanced down at her place at his side. "Lisanna?"

"The whole thing. If I just hadn't… I if I hadn't stepped up to Elf-"

"Lisanna-"

"I caused everyone so much hurt and-"

"And now it's all better." He felt whatever it was that had been wrestling in side him before, when he was listening to her talk about that place, dissipate and he wondered if it had only formed because even the thought of her there, with them, the other Fairy Tail, Edolas Fairy Tail who were (semi) fine people, but not them, their Fairy Tail, the real Fairy Tail, and most importantly not with him, it just….

He'd always thought that losing Igneel would be the worst thing that ever happened in his entire life. To find out that wasn't true and now, being given the opportunity to avoid it ever happening again, just the idea that she could leave him again, that she could be taken from him again…

Of all the things Natsu was, for all his strength and prowess and ability, the one thing that held him up above others was his hope. He truly believed, in every battle and every fight that he'd ever entered, even those where he was destined to fail, that maybe, just maybe, there was a sliver of a chance, a possibility that maybe, just maybe he'd come out the victor. It's what helped calm him, when his guild was threatened or his friends were in danger.

He truly believed, from the bottom of his heart, that no matter what, they would all end up fine. They would all turn out okay.

But with Lisanna, he hadn't even been given the opportunity to try. He hadn't even had the chance to save her, to protect her. And it wasn't that Elfman and Mira couldn't do that, hell, Lisanna herself could look out for her own well-being just well, but…

Losing her had been like losing a part of himself. A part that he hadn't even had the chance to at least try and save. To hope and save. She was there, one day and then the next, Elfman and Mirajane were returning without her.

He'd never really weighed the cost of being a mage. Of being in a guild. He knew it, of course, had had it told to him before, but the idea that one of his friends, his best friend, his truest, closest, only real friend had paid the ultimate price…

"Yeah," Lisanna was whispering softly to him then. "It is, isn't it?"

"I missed you," he told her then and pulled back some, just so that he could look in her eyes, her deep blue eyes that felt kinder, even, than her sister's. "Lisanna. I missed you so much. Every single day. And I'm sorry that I couldn't save you."

"Why would you be able to?" she asked with a shake of her head. "Natsu-"

"Because I can save anything. I do save anything. Seriously, Lisanna, I don't know about your Gray and Lucy, but mine need their butts saved a lot on jobs- Even Erza once, if you can believe it. I ate ethernano, just to save her."

"People sure need you," she conceded. "But-"

"That's not what I mean," he insisted. "Of course they need me and I need them too. They save me all the time. Especially Hap. And… And you will now too. Need me. Won't you? You don't mean that about only going on jobs with Elfman, do you?

"I dunno." She even shrugged. "I just know that I missed you too. And I mean that, you know? Even though I got you, a different you, it still wasn't' enough."

"Well, no offense to Edolas' Natsu, but he was a bit of a-"

"I thought he was kind of cute."

It was his turn to huff, but not in annoyance, not at anything, really, but more just because this moment, living this exact moment, still was blowing his mind a bit and he wondered how long it would take before he stopped feeling this way. Stopped waking up and having to see Lisanna immediately. Just to know she was still there.

Would this be how it was, he wondered, when he found Igneel? If anything, finding Lisanna once more definitely confirmed to him that yes, eventually, he certainly would be seeing his long-lost dragon sooner rather than later.

"Wait a minute." And Lisanna's look wasn't so serious any longer. "Did you just say that you ate ethernano? I mean, fire is one thing, but-"

"It's a long story." One that, honestly, he'd forgotten most of by that point. Boy, the months sure flew.

"Yeah," she agreed with a nod. "I've been hearing that about a lot of things recently. I guess I have a lot of catching up to do."

"Not with me," he insisted. "Feels like we've hardly missed a beat."

He held up a victorious fist then, as if something had been accomplished, while Lisanna looked passed him, reflective once more.

"I just keep thinking about how," she told him then, "it was all a mistake. It-"

"Lisanna, you can't keep-"

"Not about Elf," she told him. "About… Everything happens for a reason, right, Natsu? That's why we're all here. Because we're supposed to be. But what if it was a mistake? An accident? Happenstance? That I just happened to be at the right place, at the right time, to be taken up by a foreign magic, for the other Lisanna, Edolas Lisanna, to die in that exact instant that I needed her too… What if it had been the other way around? What if… What if I died? Had actually died? And she was sent here? Or if you went there, to Edolas, and I wasn't there? And it was the other Lisanna? What then? Natsu?"

Her question didn't make sense to him and he wasn't even certain if it was a question at all, but rather just a rambling train of thought. Still, he shrugged after a short second of thinking before remarking, "Then nothing, I guess. The other you wouldn't have been able to come back to Earth Land with us and would still be living with her siblings there, whether she'd been in Earth Land with us before or not. So if it was for a reason, I'm glad for it. A happy coincidence too."

"A good mistake," she whispered and he nodded some.

"The best worst dream."

They couldn't stay there forever that day, together, away from the others, locked off in her bedroom at the Strauss' house where nothing had changed and yet, everything was so different, but Lisanna was as happy for the opportunity just to have that moment. Even if it was only a moment. To be with Natsu like that. Again.

She knew he felt much the same.

And even if, just as they both got comfortable in the idea, as he stopped rushing to her each morning in the hall, to be certain of her, and she didn't wake in the night, frightened that she'd find her siblings and best friend were no longer the one's she'd grown up with, it turned out to just be a trick, just a dream, just a fantasy and things were reversed once more, then at least, at the very least, they'd been given a chance to be together again. To see one another again.

If this had all just been a mistake then, well, Natsu resounded to the idea it was the best one either of them had ever made.

* * *

**Rewatching Edolas after having not seen it in a good few years. It's still the best of the original arcs. Bet. Put me in the mood for some Natsu and Lisanna stuff, anyways, so maybe some more one-shots on the way. **


End file.
